*As Subverting The Values He Will Be Sworn To Defend
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A Nigerian lawyer, Daniel Alagor Esq., has challenged NBA presidential aspirant Aare Muyiwa Akinboro SAN to formally withdraw the Egbe Amofin O’odua court suit that blocked his competitors from the nomination process — describing the aspirant’s submission of a nomination form on April 8 while the court order remains active and adjourned to April 15 as an attempt to win the presidency through judicial manipulation rather than fair democratic contest
In a searing critique titled “Does Akinboro Want To Be An Ex Parte President Of NBA?”, Alagor accused Akinboro of “clearing the field with court orders” and then seeking “the applause of a fair contest,” arguing that the NBA cannot credibly defend justice and due process if its own president arrives in office by subverting the very values he will be sworn to uphold.
On April 8, 2026, Akinboro walked into the offices of the NBA Electoral Committee and submitted his presidential nomination form. He arrived with supporters, thanked God, and young lawyers posed for photographs.
“The Bar should not confuse that photograph with innocence,” Alagor warned.
The submission came against the backdrop of two court orders obtained from the Oyo State High Court on February 24, 2026, by the Incorporated Trustees of Egbe Amofin O’odua a regional association of Yoruba lawyers that effectively froze the entire NBA electoral process except for Akinboro’s candidacy.
The first order, granted by Justice Y.S. Adekunle in Suit No. I/205/2026, was an interim injunction barring the NBA from recognising or processing the nominations of any candidate other than Akinboro. The second order halted all Electoral Committee activities and barred the NBA President from constituting any electoral body.
“Together, both orders froze the entire process, with Akinboro as the only man left standing in an empty field,” Alagor stated.
Alagor framed the central question not as one of credentials or connections but of fitness for office.
“The question before Nigerian lawyers is not whether Akinboro is credentialed or well-connected. It is whether a man who used the judiciary to eliminate competition should be trusted with the presidency of an institution whose entire moral authority rests on fair process. That is not a question about personality. It is a question about fitness,” Alagor wrote.
He cited former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Professor Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, who described the first court order as a “blatantly corrupt” attempt to predetermine the election outcome.
“There is a word for winning a race after locking the other runners out of the stadium. It is not a victory,” Alagor declared.
Alagor exposed what he described as a fundamental logical contradiction in the Egbe Amofin suit.
“Egbe Amofin argued before the court that the NBA constitution does not recognise zoning in a manner that creates a sole candidacy, then used precisely that argument to demand Akinboro be recognised as the sole candidate. They cited the Constitution to produce an outcome that the Constitution forbids. They invoked the rule of law to destroy it,” Alagor stated.
“In a profession built on the integrity of legal reasoning, that is not a minor inconsistency. It is a confession,” he added.
He further pointed to Article 20, Part III, Second Schedule of the NBA Constitution, which prohibits any Branch, Section, or Forum from endorsing any aspirant for elective office in the Association, with violators facing referral to the Disciplinary Committee for professional misconduct.
“The drafters of that clause built a wall against precisely this conduct. The wall was not merely breached. It was demolished, and the rubble was used to build a podium,” Alagor wrote.
Alagor addressed Akinboro’s public denial of involvement in the Egbe Amofin suit with a Yoruba proverb and a logical challenge.
“That denial asks Nigerian lawyers to accept one of two propositions: either a regional group spent substantial legal resources to benefit a man who did not know their plan, or Akinboro knew, said nothing, and waited to collect the reward. Logic does not offer a third option,” Alagor stated.
“The Yoruba have a proverb: He who sends his child to the market cannot feign surprise when the child returns with goods. Akinboro may not have personally filed the suit. But the goods are in his house,” he wrote.
He noted that the Young Lawyers for Democracy had issued an ultimatum demanding that Akinboro publicly condemn the lawsuit and distance himself from it, or face opposition from young lawyers nationwide.
“He never condemned it. He never withdrew it. He submitted a nomination form instead. That is not distance. That is the direction,” Alagor stated.
Alagor drew particular attention to the proximity of two dates: Akinboro’s nomination on April 8 and the Egbe Amofin suit’s return to court on April 15.
“Those dates are four days apart and nothing else. The same legal instrument that froze his competitors sits in an Ibadan courtroom, adjourned, not discontinued, not withdrawn, not renounced,” Alagor observed.
“A man who genuinely believes in open competition surrenders that instrument formally, on the record, before he picks up a nomination form. He does not file on Tuesday and reserves the option to reactivate a court order the following Wednesday,” he stated.
“That is not participation in a democratic process. That is the management of one,” Alagor concluded on this point.
Alagor issued a direct and specific challenge to Akinboro.
“The test for Akinboro is simple and still outstanding. Withdraw the Egbe Amofin suit, not through a press statement, but through a formal discontinuation in the Oyo State High Court, on the record, before April 15. That action costs nothing if his commitment to democracy is genuine. It costs everything if it is not,” Alagor wrote.
He concluded with a warning to the entire legal profession.
“The Bar should watch what he does between now and that date. Not what he says. What he does. In a court of law, those are never the same thing, and every lawyer in Nigeria knows it,” Alagor stated.
Alagor framed the stakes in terms that go beyond the NBA election itself, arguing that the integrity of the legal profession’s most important institution is at risk.
“The NBA is the institution Nigerians expect to speak for justice when the state will not, and for due process when power will not. It cannot do that work credibly if its own president arrived in office by subverting the values he will be sworn to defend,” Alagor wrote.
The NBA presidential election has been one of the most contentious in the Association’s history. Three Southwest candidates Akinboro SAN, Akangbe SAN, and Mrs. Okusanya-Badejo SAN are competing for the position, alongside candidates from other zones.
The Egbe Amofin court orders created months of paralysis, with the Electoral Committee unable to process nominations or conduct its work. Although subsequent legal developments have partially freed the process, the underlying suit remains pending before the Oyo State High Court.
Akinboro has publicly denied involvement in the suit and positioned himself as a candidate committed to democratic competition. However, his critics including Alagor, Odinkalu, and the Young Lawyers for Democracy argue that his failure to formally dissociate himself from the court orders through a discontinuation of the suit, rather than merely through public statements, undermines his democratic credentials.
The Egbe Amofin suit returns to court on April 15, 2026. What happens before that date whether the suit is formally withdrawn or simply allowed to continue will be closely watched by the legal community as a definitive test of Akinboro’s commitment to the open electoral process he claims to support.
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